To Love and Protect
by The Jade Knight
Summary: [a FredTheBedHead story] Malchoir finally breaks Raven and she accidently frees him, in the battle that ensues Beastboy gets badly hurt tryng to protect her. Now, with her rage boiling over Raven attacks [BBRae]


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**This is a request FredTheBedHead did for me. I tried several time to do it myself but i just couldn't pull it off, give me great reviews and i shall also pass them along.**

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**To Love and Protect**

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Raven clamped her hands over her ears, desperately trying to keep out the incessant whisper seeping through her ears and into her brain like sickly honey. The voice pounded at her weak defenses until she lowered her hands and surrendered to the poison trickling into her thoughts.

"Raven" it called and she tried her hardest to ignore it, but still it carried on.

"Raven let me out, Raven"

Amethyst eyes squeezed tightly shut against the threatening flow of salty tears, hands balled into fist, the darkest Titan threw up walls against the emotion spreading throughout her mind. But she knew that it was no use, he would break through, just as he did last time, and she would become but a pawn in his plans again.

Trapped inside his papery prison, Malchior grinned as he listened to the sounds of her struggle with her own feelings. He could not let her escape this time, not now that he had worked so hard to get her under his thumb. He called to her constantly, wearing her down until she couldn't take it anymore. He was waiting for her to loose control, to let him out in her desperation.

The battle of wills continued long into the night, each call of her name wearing down the darkest titan until she was exhausted and desperate for the sleep that would not come to her.

Unknown by the two warriors, a second battle was being fought outside the door. Beast Boy leaned against the door, afraid to enter Raven's domain, but wanting to help her in every way he could. Sliding down to the floor he weighed out the options and outcomes in his head. Not particularly fond of being thrown out of the window, it wasn't until he heard sobbing coming from behind the steel door that he decided, Raven's room or not, he was going in to help her.

Sliding open the door, he stepped cautiously inside, not knowing what sight would greet him. What he saw was not what he expected. Raven was curled up on the floor, the chest containing Malchior's book within reach of her fingertips and the fight in her mind being played out upon her face.

Raven looked up to the boy standing over her and prayed in her head to him, not trusting her voice. Help me. She said. Bare green arms reached down to her and she was enveloped in a warm embrace, turning into her rescuer and sobbing into the muscles on his chest.

Beast Boy could feel her hot tears running down his bare chest and it made him ache with a longing to help her, do anything to stop her crying, because this wasn't Raven. Not his Raven, because his Raven would never cry. Shout and scream, sometimes, but never cry.

Relaxing into the arms that held her, Raven looked up to the person holding her to see Beast Boys worried face gazing back down at her. The voice having stopped calling her, admitting its defeat, Raven let all else go and smiled. The surprise at her action was evident on the older boys face, but he returned the movement and then shifted to pull her onto his lap so he could keep his arms around her in a more comfortable position. Both teens blushed and looked away from each other, unsure of what to say next.

It was Raven who decided what would happen next by falling asleep against the warmth of Beast Boy's body. BB relaxed and looked down at the girl in his arms. She was really quite beautiful, when he could look at her this way; at peace. He lifted her up carefully and put her onto her Queen sized bed, pulling the lavender sheets over her. He watched as she moved into a more comfortable position, still deep in slumber and before he could help himself, he felt his head tilt down and he placed his lips smoothly on top of hers before turning and running out of the room.

Unfortunately for them all, that tiny gesture was all that was needed. Though the girl herself was fast asleep, her emotions were wide awake and going haywire. Black energy reached out to every object that it could and began its destruction of her belongings. Books shredded themselves and objects were tossed into the air. In the middle of the frenzy, Malchior's chest had splintered and the book was being mercilessly torn apart page by page by the emotionally disturbed teen's unchecked powers. As the storm died down, the books cover fell to the floor, but her unconscious desire had spread its contents across the room, irreparable.

Raven slept still, exhausted from her emotions and battle, and did not notice the figure that stood in the corner of her room cackling quietly to itself. White hair streaming down his back, Malchior stood in all his human form glory laughing at his freedom.

Who would have though, that all that was needed was to destroy the book?  
Arrogant as always, Malchior began to plot inside his head. Of course, a girl as small and stupid as her could not really defeat me he thought to himself. It's just because she had home advantage. Well, not this time, this time I choose the battle grounds! And with that in mind, he melted into a swirl of magic, cautious of capture before he could lay out his plans.

Choosing his grounds carefully, Malchior reared up into his dragon shape and began to destroy everything in his path in the cliché monster way, choosing the city as his playground and the buildings as his toys.

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Raven awoke to the sound of beeping and reached groggily for her communicator to see what the problem was. What she saw almost made her scream. Robin had loaded up a video link to the scene of whatever was happening and she could clearly see the black dragon swinging his tail like a baseball bat at the skyscrapers in the city. Desperate to prove herself wrong, she sat up and looked for Malchior's prison, but was nearly reduced to tears at the destruction that had taken her room, the dragon's prison shredded.

Pounding sounded at her door and the team burst through and charged at her.

"Raven!" Robin screamed "Why did you let him lose?

"I didn't." she protested.

Robin regarded her before his expression softened and Beast Boy pulled her to her feet.  
"It doesn't matter how he got out, but he is, and we need to stop him." He said wisely, shocking the rest of the team into silence before Robin recovered and yelled.

"Titans, Go!"

Raven flew towards that dragon, trying to quell the turmoil her heart was in. It was beginning to affect her powers. Leaping into action she reached out with black energy in and attempt to bury the dragon under a mound of city buses and lamp posts. But Malchior was ready for this attack plan, and he simply batted away the objects as if they were having a mild game of baseball. Still exhausted and with emotions running amok, Raven began to find that her powers were dwindling and she sank to the ground panting. Malchior took advantage of this momentary lapse in concentration to hoist her into the air in one gigantic claw. Raven struggled but couldn't seem to find the strength to pry the claw from around her. Malchior began to laugh, rumbling cackles sounding through out the city as he watching Raven become paler and weaker.

"You're pathetic." He crowed. "You've got no book to lock me in now have you? You couldn't stop me last time without it and you won't now!" And with that he launched Raven into the air, and she, unable to coax up the power needed for levitation. Plummeted to the ground and landed with a crack audible to the other Titans who had been launching futile attempts at getting the dragon to let her down.

Beast Boy watched Raven fall with horror etched across his face, an unending scream voicing her name. Seeing her crash into the pavement became the last straw and he reared into dragon form and began attacking Malchior with a fury rarely seen in the skinny jokester. However, Malchior had the advantage of being a real dragon with magical strength. Beast Boy soon began to tire and he tried again and again to crush the dragon into the road.

Raven watched from where she had landed, her healing powers already kicking in, mending her body. She looked on in pain, unable to do anything until she could heal the ribs she knew to be broken. She knew that Beast Boy was tiring; she could see the perspiration trickling down his face. Yet Malchior seemed to have infinite amounts of energy continued to cackle through out the fight. This only served to anger the jade Titan more. Finally, the pressure became too much for Beast Boy and Machior sent him sailing into the buildings with a blow that Raven knew could well be fatal.

Anger rose inside Raven like she hadn't felt since the day she fought her father. Rising up in black swirls, she drew on all her energy reserves, power dripping in black streams from her hands.

Suddenly, Malchior knew he was in trouble. The Titans were strewn about, knocked back with swipes from his massive arms. And this seemed all that was needed to anger the dark demoness.

Raven screamed in anger, thinking of Beast Boy lying in the rubble as she faced the dragon. She reached out and blasted him with a volley of shots of black magic. Malchior was knocked onto his back on the pavement. Raven was now breathing heavily, but this didn't deter Raven. Raising her arms, she screamed to the heavens,

**"AZERATH METRION ZINTHOS!"**

The amount of energy emanating from her began to cause lightning to fire randomly into the sky. Raising her arms at Malchior, she formed a portal behind him with one final scream flung him into it. Her anger now began to subside and she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

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When Raven awoke she found herself in her room, the familiar comfortable aura hanging around it. Someone had cleared it up. Clearing out the strewn paper and righting the furniture. That same someone was sat beside her; watching her carefully as she opened her eyes and looked around.

Turning her eyes onto him, Raven's eyes filled with questioning and she threw caution to the wind and flung her arms around him. "I thought you were dead!" She gasped into a green skinned neck.

Beast Boy chuckled lightly. "So that's it, we wondered what got you so angry… Anyway, I came to say thank you. Cyborg had us in med rooms next to each other. Then he came in the other day and I was healed. Poof! Internal bleeding; ruptured lung, all gone! There was only one person it could have been." He said smiling down at her as he lowered her back to the pillows. Raven batted his arms away impatiently and scrambled to get up, despite his protests that she should rest.

Getting straight up, Raven wobbled a bit and accepted his offer of an arm to lean on as she walked down to the main room. She was met by cheers of happiness. Starfire flew to her and enveloped her in a hug.

"Oh, my friend! I am so pleased you are well, I will go make the pudding of happiness!" Then letting go of the chocking girl Starfire flew to the kitchen.

Robin and Cyborg started forward with their concerns about her welfare. But stopped in surprise as they saw the position of Beast Boys arms; which were wrapped around Raven's waist; and instead of trying to kill him… she was smiling! Raven leaned happily into Beast Boy, smirking at the gob smacked looks on the other two boy's faces. Beastboy ever the joker, tested just how much they could make the other boys squirm and said casually to Raven, "Hey Raven, you wanna go catch a movie?" Raven nodded and the two left. Laughing at the expression on cyborg and Robin's faces, who both looked like they were going to have some sort of seizure.

Raven smiled, wincing as she heard something nearby explode, but Beast Boy shook his head at her. "Don't worry about it; I think we can exchange a few broken light bulbs for you being happy." The he casually leaned forward to kiss her. This seemed to snap Cyborg out of his reverie and he snatched Beast Boy away shouting,

"Right! Before you go anywhere with my little sister, we have a few thing to sort out. Number one, you hurt her and I'll hurt you! Got it? Number two…"

Raven shook her head at the action and settled back to watch as Cyborg described, in great detail to the young changeling exactly what he would do to him if he ever so much as made her frown, let alone cry. Raven smiled, she had a feeling that all of this really wasn't necessary. Beast Boy really wanted to make her happy, and that in itself made her the happiest she had ever been.

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**Eternal-Loss**

**FredTheBedHead**

**_PLEASE READ & REVIEW_**


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